It
marks the second time in a decade that the Nesher quarry outside Ramle has
yielded an exceptional archaeological discovery. The last time, in 2006, it was
a cave with small prehistoric creatures unique to the site.

The
newest finding is an enormous quantities of auroch bones – an extinct species
of large wild cattle that is the ancestor of domestic cattle – which were
found, together with the bones of other large mammals such as horse, rhinoceros
and fallow deer, and of smaller animals including gazelles and land turtles.
They were uncovered in 2010 and 2011 in rescue digs carried out by Yossi
Zaidner of the University of Haifa’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology.
Researchers believe the funnel-shaped pit was formed when the cave’s ceiling
collapsed.

Zaidner
presented his findings yesterday at his institute’s annual research conference,
and published them in the January 2014 issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.

The
findings at the site are associated with the Mousterian period, a
hunter-gatherer culture from the Middle Paleolithic Period (from 250,000 to
around 40,000 years ago). No human remains were found at the site.

The
researchers concluded that the site was settled around 170,000 years ago and
was an important gathering place for around 40,000 years after that.

“From
our acquaintance with the Mousterian culture in the Mediterranean region, it
appears to be the first time that remains from this culture have been found in
such an unusual manner,” Zaidner said, adding that members of this culture
generally lived in caves, into which they brought their stone tools, parts of
animals they hunted and other resources.

The
Nesher site is unique, Zaidner said, because it combines cave living with
open-air settlement.

“The
discovery was a complete surprise to us and we’re still not certain what the
site was used for, perhaps for hunting, perhaps as a meeting place; another
avenue of investigation is that the pit might have been used as a giant trap.”

According
to Zaidner, a small number of sites that can be associated to the Mousterian
period have been found, but they tend to contain small numbers of remains in a
layer only a few centimeters deep. Such sites are assumed to be hunting sites
or way stations rather than sites of long-term habitation, he said, noting that
such a site was discovered in recent years on the banks of the Jordan River.